The young woman about to cut my hair today didn’t mean to imply that I’m old, I’m sure.  My first reaction was to look around the salon and make sure the question was actually aimed at me.  Grandchildren?  Really?  Yikes!

I don’t generally feel very old, until I need to do the math to figure out how long ago something happened.  I met my friends Sherry and Walter a couple of jobs ago, while working at a job I started in 2004.  That doesn’t sound too long ago.  Then I realize it’s been seven years since I left that job for a different challenge.  Apparently it was quite a while ago after all.

I read about a study that set out to answer whether time moves more quickly as we age.  One of the researchers speculated that time merely seems to fly by because we have fewer milestones – not as many first days of school (unless you’re a teacher!), first date, first kiss, weddings and children.  We’ve been living in our current home for four years now.  My memories of moving into our first house are still vivid, though that was nearly two decades ago.  I don’t recall much about the months of routine work days between then and now, so perhaps the researcher was right on track.

All right.  Yes, I am old enough to be a grandmother.  In fact, I have a number of adorable grand-nieces and grand-nephews… so the grandmother question wasn’t that far off.  It did make me stop and think about the passage of time.  It gave my husband Pete a good chuckle, too.  And now I can cross another off of my ‘firsts’ list – the first time I’ve been asked about my grandchildren.  Though I’ll need to add that entry to the list before I can cross it off!